Modern consumers are becoming increasingly sophisticated and demanding concerning the communications options that they expect to find in their homes, and in their hotel, motel, or hospital rooms. In more particular, newer structures may include as part of their basic infrastructure dedicated wiring connections that are designed accommodate modern phone systems and computer links. These connections make it possible, in the case of a motel or hospital, to offer a resident in-room features such as the ability to view his or her bill on the television. More generally, these links provide services such as pay-per-view movies, and advanced phone systems that offer voice mail, faxes, Internet connections, etc. Typically, the wiring that makes these in-room features possible is installed within the walls of the structure at the time the building is constructed.
Owners of structures that do not have dedicated computer wiring—as much as they might want to offer these same sorts of features to their customers—often find themselves unable to justify the cost of retrofitting their buildings to accommodate these new technologies. Rewiring a structure in which dedicated computer/communications lines have not been installed at the time of construction is usually not cost effective and raises several concerns beyond the obvious financial burden of the upgrade itself. For example, in the case of a hotel or hospital, an upgrade will likely result in a loss of revenue because blocks of rooms will need to made available to the workman during the installation; an upgrade may disrupt existing communications links; and, an in-wall installation will inevitably generate dust and dirt which tend to spread throughout the facility.
Additionally, the modern trend is toward central monitoring and control of appliances, utilities, and alarms. In more particular, “smart” buildings are becoming increasingly common, due in large part to a broadened realization of the enormous cost advantages in terms of lower staff requirements and energy savings that these sorts of improvements can bring. Smart buildings, though, require communications links between a central monitor and various remote thermostats, HVAC units, etc. Once again, many buildings that might otherwise profit by central monitoring and control of room conditions are for the most part cost-prohibited from adding this functionality, the cost of installing the necessary wiring infrastructure being for the most part not economically justifiable.
Finally, there are any number of room conditions that the hotel front desk (or hospital nurses' station, etc.) might want to monitor. For example, fire and smoke alarms should notify the front desk—in addition to sounding an alarm—so that the staff would know where the problem is. Additionally, an in-room “panic” button would allow a resident to summon help in an emergency. More mundane uses might include monitoring whether or not the in-room refrigerator has been opened (so that the staff will know whether or not to take an inventory for billing purposes); monitoring the status of the heating unit, air conditioner, lights etc. However, all of these monitors require an interconnection between the room and the front desk and might be prohibitively expensive to install after construction on the building is completed.
In the case of residential monitoring, cable companies are always looking for ways to control access to their cable systems. This might be for purposes such as offering movies-on-demand or pay-per-view in a viewer's home. Additionally, these companies seek to limit access to premium channels by those who have not paid for them. Further, most cable systems have additional signal bandwidth available within their systems that could be used for other communications purposes such as Internet access.
Even though many structures might not have the special wiring often used today, they almost invariably have at least a coaxial (coax) cable running to each room for the transmission of a television signal thereto. This is often referred to as a “closed” cable television system. The fact that each room in a hotel, hospital, etc., already has a coax line running to it suggests that this conduit might be used to upgrade the communications systems. Additionally, in residential cable systems there is a vast network of coax lines run from a central distribution center to individual homes and then a further distribution within the home to individual rooms. Given the increasing pressure to offer advanced communications options to the end user, these coax networks would, at least on their face, appear to be an attractive upgrade pathway. And, indeed, that is the approach taken by the instant invention. However, this approach is not without its problems.
First, those skilled in the art will understand that it is possible to send a wide variety of signals through a coax cable. However, a cable television network cannot usually be entirely preempted for general communications use because consumers demand television, perhaps even more stridently than they demand communications services. Thus, any communications upgrade that seeks to utilize a coax network that carries video signals must manage do so without disrupting those signals.
Additionally, coax television wiring is not well suited for communication to a single recipient: it is more suited to mass receipt of the same signal. This is because coax wiring is different from telephone wiring in that a signal that is placed into the coax backbone will potentially be available to be received in every room in the complex, whereas separate phone wires are run to each individual room. This configuration difference becomes a problem when the goal is the secure transmission over coax of confidential information to only one receiver. For example, consider the case of a lodger who wants to view the current status of his or her bill on the in-room television. That information is typically maintained within a centralized computer facility and, in order to transmit that information through coax to the room, it must be, in effect, “broadcast” from the head-end throughout the entire network. Of course, this broadcast can potentially be “received” in every room connected to the coax and it goes without saying that most residents would not want this confidential information seen by others. Thus, some provision must be made for the targeting of individual rooms so that confidential information can be selectively transmitted from a centralized location to a single remote recipient.
Finally, a similar problem exists where the direction of information transmission is from a room back to a central receiver. Once again, a transmission from a room over the coax backbone to the central receiver can potentially also be heard in every other room. Additionally, the central receiver cannot determine the source of a remote broadcast unless something about that broadcast identifies the sender.
Thus, what is needed is an invention that can provide simultaneous two-way voice and data communications over a coax cable, thereby allowing owners of buildings that do not contain dedicated computer wiring to avail themselves of advances in computer and telephone technology without rewiring. Additionally, this system should not disturb existing television broadcast signals. The system must also be able to selectively communicate with a particular remote receiver, even though every receiver hooked onto the cable network might potentially receive the message. Finally, the system should provide some means of generating alarm-type signals that originate remotely and are received and processed at a central monitoring station.
After the present invention was conceived and constructed, a patent search was conducted in the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the purpose of determining whether any similar or related solutions had been previously developed to the foregoing problems. That patent search produced the following references relating to advertising within elevators and methods of distributing short messages such as ads:
U.S. Pat.Date ofNo.InventorTitlePatent4,008,369TheurerTelephone Interfaced Subscrip-Feb. 15, 1977et al.tion Cable Television SystemEspecially Useful in Hotels andMotels4,928,168IwashitaBilling Data Display System andMay 22, 1990Terminal Used Therein for aClosed Circuit TelevisionSystem4,947,244FenwickVideo Selection and DistributionAug. 7, 1990et. alSystem4,994,908KubanInteractive Room Status/TimeFeb. 19, 1991et al.Information System5,455,619Trucken-Video Distribution System Ad-Oct. 3, 1995millerdressing Device for Identifyinget al.Remote Locations5,488,411LewisInteractive System for a ClosedJan. 30, 1996Cable Network5,565,908AhmadBi-Directional System for Pro-Oct. 15, 1996viding Information, Manage-ment, and EntertainmentServices5,581,270SmithHotel-Based Video Game andDec. 3, 1996et al.Communication System5,612,730LewisInteractive System for a ClosedMar. 18, 1997Cable Network5,638,426LewisInteractive System for a ClosedJun. 10, 1997Cable Network5,640,193WellnerMultimedia Service Access byJun. 17, 1997Reading Marks on an Object
The Lewis patents (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,488,411, 5,612,730, and 5,638,426) teach an interactive system for a CCTV network. However, all of these patents rely on a separate PBX (private branch exchange) telephone system to supplement the data transmitted to the room over the coax line.
Theurer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,008,369, also requires separate telephone communications lines in addition to a video/coax connection, and does not offer video and voice over a single coax line.
Fenwick et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,244, requires “grouped” sets of video monitors and does not provide two-way voice and data communications over a coax cable.
Kuban et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,994,908, teaches a two-way (interactive) room status and time information over a coax or fiber optic communications link. However, Kuban does not teach how to use this same system for two-way voice communications.
Iwashita, U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,168, discloses a CCTV system that allows the user to request billing information from a central computer. However, Iwashita does not provide two-way voice and data transmission over a single cable. Similarly, Truckenmiller et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,455,619, is concerned exclusively with distribution of video signals to a plurality of remote television receivers and uses a separable “tag” system, wherein a hardware key/microprocessor combination is placed in each room containing a television.
Smith, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,270, teaches a video game/communications system with provides for two-way data transmission using RF modems. This system does not additionally offer two-way voice and data communications over the same cable.
Wellner, U.S. Pat. No. 5,640,193, discloses how a hand-held scanner pen might be used to select options over a telephone. It does not discuss how video and two-way data and voice might be sent over a single cable.
Finally, Ahmad, U.S. Pat. No. 5,565,908, teaches a system for selecting entertainment services, such as movies, from a motel room. It is not concerned with two-way voice communications.
Thus, the above-listed patents are clearly distinguishable from the present invention, a description of which is set forth below. Before proceeding to a description of the instant invention, however, it should be noted and remembered that the description of the invention which follows, together with the accompanying drawings, should not be construed as limiting the invention to the examples (or preferred embodiments) shown and described. This is so because those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains will be able to devise other forms of this invention within the ambit of the appended claims.